Nightlight
by AonoRunic
Summary: Alternate ending to Iron Man 3. (drabble)


Spoilers for Iron Man 3, so you have been warned.

/

Fingers still wrapped around the arc reactor, no longer warm with the hum of energy running through it, Tony smirked a little when he heard the footsteps behind him. "Still haven't figured out you're doing the whole doppelganger switching thing then?"

If he had looked back Tony would have seen Loki raise one of those delicate eyebrows. "Of course not. They are too concerned with other matters to pay me much mind at the moment."

The god's hands on Tony's shoulders turned him ever so slightly away from the ocean, long fingers unbuttoning his shirt. Green eyes lingered on the space where the arc reactor had once rested within Tony's chest. Tony remained silent until Loki reached out to touch the skin, releasing a shuddering gasp. Loki looked up sharply, his fingers pulled back to hover over the skin instead of touch. "Can you feel it?"

"Nah, nerve damage. It's just weird is all."

Loki went back to touching. Tony watched while the Trickster explored his skin, but could not feel the sensation of those talented fingers. "My nightlight is gone," Loki finally said, his voice even.

Tony snorted. "Don't tell me you're actually going to miss it? Well, I mean if I lost it before New York you wouldn't have, but-"

He was cut off by one of Loki's fingers pressing against his lips. "It was a part of you, now it is not. Am I going to miss someone being able to rip out your mechanical heart so that metal shards will pierce your real one? Of course not." He bent down to place an oddly gentle kiss against Tony's lips. Tony wasn't sure what to do with that; they'd never done gentle or tenderness before, but it was actually rather...sweet...nice? He didn't know what word to use, but he liked it.

Loki growled when he pulled away. "If I was free I would have ripped him to shreds."

"I know, babe, and it would have been a lot quicker, but also a lot more traumatizing at the same time. But hey, this way Rhodey got to save the President, and Pepper got to be really badass. And I..." He trailed off, eyes wandering back down to the device in his hand.

Tony's eyes slid shut when Loki pressed his forehead to Tony's. The weirdest thing about all this was that Loki understood; he understood the nightmares, the self doubt, the well, everything really. His heart beat a little faster at the revelation, and god, it was good to feel the old ticker beating without the threat of shrapnel ending his life.

"I thought you dead," Loki whispered. The god dropped his guard enough that there was a slight desperation to his voice letting Tony know just how worried Loki had been.

"I'm harder to kill than that." He stepped away from Loki, fingers tightening around the arc reactor one last time before he wound up for the toss and threw the device into the ocean. When he looked back to the god, Loki's eyes were still trained on the spot where the arc reactor had disappeared. "Hey, come on, Reindeer Games, this is a happy moment. Don't be a Debbie downer."

"A-" Loki shook his head, deciding not to question the Midgardian idiom. "What will you do now?"

"Well, hopefully have celebration sex before your spell wares off and you're stuck in that cell again for awhile."

Loki sighed in a melodramatic fashion. "I feel as if you are just using me for me body."

Tony threw his head back and laughed, a wide smile on his lips. "I think we moved past that awhile ago, Dasher."

Loki was silent for a moment before he nodded in agreement. "Yes, I believe we have." He kissed Tony again, this time demanding with a promise of oh so many good things.

/

"And that's how I developed a kink for having sex in ruins. Wait, is that even a kink? Because it should be. It's great."

Bruce groaned. The scientist was slumped in his chair, head thrown back and hand over his face. "Tony, I did not need to know that."

"Oh?" Tony tilted his head to the side, the barest hint of a smirk still on his lips. "Really?"

"This is revenge for me not listening to how you took down A.I.M., isn't it?"

"Why yes, Brucie. Yes it is."


End file.
